SXSW: Robert Duvall looks back

Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall talked about his career at South by Southwest. (Getty Images)

AUSTIN — On a beautiful day that was awfully tempting, many registrants at the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival chose to stay indoors Tuesday and took in the excellent day sessions at Austin Convention Center.

Some fans were more driven than others.

For example, fans of “Portlandia” gathered long before lunch for a spot to get into a session titled “Portlandia: Behind the Scenes with the Creators” (actors Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen were expected).

The same was practically true to see actor Robert Duvall at 2 p.m. Film critic Leonard Maltin moderated. It was a standing room only crowd.

Maltin and the star received a rousing ovation in a room jam-packed with hundreds of people.

“I’m very flattered that you came to see me,” Maltin joked. “But I know the truth. You have come to see the great Robert Duvall.”

Duvall showed great wit and shared many stories. “He’s adorable,” gushed one woman in the room.

The Oscar-winning star has appeared in such classic films as “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Godfather,” “The Great Santini,” “M*A*S*H.,” “Tender Mercies” and the miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” which he called the ” ‘Godfather’ of westerns.”

The award-winning actor gets to pick and choose roles, but he admitted that “the picking is a little bit scarcer.”

The actor joked that he takes his cues from Billy Bob Thornton about preparation and execution for film roles: “Rehearsal is for (bleep); two takes. That’s it,” Duvall said with a laugh, crediting Thornton for the line.

Duvall also said he learns from young actors: “It’s a back-forth thing.”

Marlon Brando entered the conversation. “Brando. Man, he was the man,” Duvall said about his early idol. “My God, that man was unique.”

“I told him one time, ‘You should have played Othello.’ He said, ‘Boring.’ ”

He talked about “To Kill a Mockingbird.” “I had one line — that they cut,” he said. “I was the mockingbird, you know.”

About “The Godfather” set: “We’d moon each other,” he said. (He praised the director, Francis Ford Coppola, and the casting.

He called “M*A*S*H” director Robert Altman “an experimental guy.”

Maltin said audiences react to Duvall’s “authenticity” and “quintessentially American.”

His latest film is “A Night In Old Mexico,” which screened at the festival. In post production is “The Judge.”